Far North Queensland – relaxation you can’t fake

 

The Cockatoo Team was in Far North Queensland in October. Herewith our report.

 Quality infrastructure – FNQ really is a well-integrated regional economy – there is now a breadth of economic activity beyond tourism, tropical fruit and sugar. Cairns Airport is delivering on the hub potential, with Japanese tourists and Gulf prawns coming in, telecoms equipment and meat pies heading out to Mt. Isa, Cape York and beyond. The roads, rural as well as urban, are generally first-class – although some Cockatoo members say the Cairns-Gordonvale sector is a car park in peak periods. The Cairns Esplanade has become a wonderful great example of infrastructure providing a focal point for a community.

Tourism characteristics – Despite the cheery dispositions, the city of Cairns is struggling. We are reliably informed that the unemployment rate is nudging 14%, due to falling tourism numbers and the NQEA shipbuilding facility losing a defence contract to Victoria. So the locals are talking about inventing new attractions based around adventure tourism. By the way, swimming in FNQ outside of swimming pools is a risky venture – take you pick of sharks, stingers or crocs. But the region’s point of difference is the genuine hospitality, and the undercurrent of relaxation. This cannot be faked, and it extends to all the locals, not just the tourism operators.

 Local produce – Another point of difference – the local produce – is being smothered. Take Port Douglas, 80km north of Cairns. It has a Noosa feel, with an excellent range of accommodation and restaurants. It suffers from a culture of appallingly weak coffee, but you can shrug that off. It has a serious lack of small businesses selling seafood, fruit and vegetables. When Rudd, Bligh and the Chamber of Commerce are crying out for small business growth, where are the policies and incentives for street stalls selling prawns straight off the trawlers, and greengrocers selling paw paws from the farms? Tourists want the unique and mystical experience. You have to shop at Woolworths in Port Douglas for such items – we could have been in downtown Canberra! Crazy state of affairs!

Recycled rubber (BEST PRACTICE?)

On 5 November, Federal and State Ministers announced that a tyre recycling scheme will commence in 2010 – but Ministers backed off a legislated scheme due to pressure from the cement industry (which burns tyres in kilns) and general concerns re Big Brother. Hence there is STILL no agreement on the details.

This week we explained our thinking to the feds (Dept of Environment), following which we’ve been invited to a ‘Tyres Roundtable’ – others involved are Australian Tyre Industry Council, Australian Tyre Recyclers Association, Minerals Council of Australia, Cement Industry Federation, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Motor Trades Association of Australia, Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce.

The approach we are pursuing is:

• Big opportunity for councils to attract facilities to manufacture rubber crumb and downstream products e.g. rubber matting; footpaths; underlay for soccer, hockey grounds; road safety barriers.
• Recent improvements in processing technology (UK, Germany) indicate that a viable processing plant can be established with feedstock of one million tyres annually. Long distance haulage of used tyres is not viable, so regions of 1 million plus should be able to sustain a vertically-integrated recycled rubber industry.
• City councils (e.g. in Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) thus have real potential to establish a greenfield processing plant – also regional centres with ‘road transport competitiveness’ should also be attractive e.g. Shepparton, Parkes, Orange, Port Macquarie, Wagga etc. And Newcastle has an opportunity to expand its facility.
• Other councils have potential to be first-movers in the uptake of recycled tyre products – and we have begun discussions re how a grant program might be developed to facilitate this.

 If you would like your council or company to be introduced into these agendas, please contact us ASAP.

 

RDA system a shamozzle, says Silverhawk

I have bitten my tongue, but no more. The new RDA Committees, which replace the 55 Area Consultative Committees, are not going to meet the expectations of regional folk. The reason is that no one in Canberra could really give a damn – and National Party warriors are not saying much because they want Labor to wear the results.

Alarm bells began ringing when the staff running the ACCs were told two years ago to sit on their hands. Then there was the usual review so that regional Australia could develop smarter ways to improve their effectiveness etc. Then the lengthy process began of marrying them with the state RDBs – I said then that this could be wonderful if the feds took it seriously. Then a few more delays as Gary Gray was moved to establish the Office of Northern Australia.

Sadly, the RDA Committees could have had a real influence – by advising how infrastructure expenditure is to be rolled out, by facilitating new regional investments, and by fast-tracking the smaller expenditure to get things moving. But the Department of Finance has cut program funding to pay for the GFC i.e. everyone’s roof insulation, bike trails and school gymnasiums on Sydney’s north shore.

 Mayors should be demanding some long-term sanity to infrastructure spending and regional development. You can’t have 200 ACC staff sitting out there for two years doing nothing, then a flood of funding, then a trickle. Local players need to band together with their state colleagues and appeal to the Prime Minister for a whole-of-government long-term approach with a constant supply of oxygen.

 

Victor Harbor aged care (BEST PRACTICE)

 Silverhawk muses above about how local communities might attract business and government marbles rolling around the landscape.

 Well here is a great example. Victor Harbor – aka known as ‘Victor’ – is a typical seaside town. It is where the pride of South Australia lost its innocence in hot summers long gone. Some have now retired there with a wistful gaze and a rug on their laps. (My in-laws live there!).

 Anyway, Graeme Maxwell et al at Victor Harbor Council explain they have the oldest age cohort in Australia (54.1 years), an excellent hospital (albeit a shortage of GPs), and now a priority rollout of the National Broadband Network. We got talking about the potential of these factors to underpin a health care precinct.

The vision splendid – research associated with an ageing population (Flinders Uni has a rural clinical school there), clinical trials for drugs for elderly patients, design and manufacture of gophers, wheelchairs, rehab devices etc., alternative medicine, web-based businesses, golf courses, walking trails, adventure tourism, knowledge-based outdoor jobs for youths. And a more balanced population age structure.

You don’t need to be prescriptive – the investors will determine the specific business activity. But th locals need to remove impediments and get the right mix of infrastructure to support these businesses.

But my vision doesn’t get much encouragement from the SA Government’s 30-year plan for Greater Adelaide. It makes scarce reference to Victor. I actually rang the folk in the Department of Planning & Local Government to check that Victor (one hour’s drive from Adelaide) is inside the geographic scope of this exercise. When I was assured that the answer was ‘yes’, I respectfully suggested that they could look a bit more closely at Victor. They obviously thought I was being a smart-arse because the line went dead.

But the 30-year plan certainly talks about health and wellbeing, business clusters and growth corridors. Is the SA Government leaving it to the invisible hand of the market to fill in the details? From my experience of tracking how entrepreneurial hot spots emerge, there are usually three success factors.

• A trigger via a new piece of infrastructure that gels with other economic and social infrastructure to establish a locational advantage – the NBN roll-out might be that trigger.
• Local champions to raise awareness and press buttons – to connect to external champions. Coincidentally, the 3 federal Ministers relevant to health care are women (Macklin, Roxon, Gillard) as are the 2 state ministers (Lomax-Smith, Rankine). And 7 of the 10 councilors are also female! 
• A collaborative structure that can connect the dots – the Fleurieu RDB is being formed.

Make ‘em come, make ‘em stay

 We uncovered a gem at a conference in Victoria in July – Pauline Porcaro, a Melbourne-based hospitality and tourism teacher – her passion is to introduce a regional agritourism project into Australia.

The  Gallo Rosso (Red Rooster) accreditation system was developed in northern Italy where agritourism ventures doubled in 5 years as a result.

 The typical set-up is the men running the farm and women the tourism businesses. Operators sell local products e.g. wine to visitors. Among the variations is a teaching farm for city schoolchildren – at a cost of $5-6 per child, operators provided a home-made snack and insights into farming life. Another farm ran an ‘adopt a sheep’ program. “You visit a farm, adopt a sheep and take home a photo of the sheep…you get regular updates and once a year they get a bit of fleece or cheese …”

 It is very exacting for business operators e.g. top ranking requires all soft furnishings to be made of natural fibres; operators are not to give up farming; restrictions on accommodation size. In exchange, there is government support, especially for training and marketing.

 Pauline says we need to define agritourism, and help farmers develop a good strategic plan and decent signposting in every town. Industry has to lobby government, tourism networks must work with farmers, and we need to start to use agritourism as a term. (We couldn’t agree more, and we are going to work together to get some federal/state funding. Contact us if you are interested in being part of an alliance.

Thanks to Pauline Porcaro – www.redrooster.it/en/ or http://agritourismaustralia.com.au/

Anyone for marbles?

 A national economy is a mosaic of integrated regional economies. And they are essentially basins of attraction for private and public sector investments, that in turn drive economic activity and wealth.

Imagine each basin varying in size, with different sized marbles rolling around looking for a home. Large cities attract both business marbles and government marbles. But small towns and distant regions have shallow basins, and any business marbles don’t stick around if things get slippery – they gravitate to larger nearby basins, and the government marbles follow the action.

The business marbles have shrunk in recent times due the GFC winter events, so the government marbles have grown in size and become bolder.

The biggest is the PM marble (gold) that rolls around spreading largesse wherever it can.

The next biggest marble is Treasury/Finance (black), but it doesn’t get out much, and remains nailed to the Canberra basin.

And there are big pink marbles – community services (FAHCSIA), health and education. They are incredibly active, smooching around big and small basins alike, looking to do good things. They have a feminine side because Mesdames Macklin, Roxon and Gillard are in charge. But their progress is slowed by jaffa-sized marbles rolled in their path by things called the states.

The Defence marble is also big, adorned with medals and ribbons. It has a strong masculine side and it rolls where it likes, spilling more than it dispenses.

And the Infrastructure marble is blue because it’s controlled by males infatuated with planes, trucks and trains. This particular marble has been rolling around for over a century, but says it’s close to making things fit, despite many jaffas rolled out by the states.

Then there are four medium-sized industry marbles – innovation, industry, science and research; broadband, communications and the digital economy (BCDE); agriculture, fisheries and forestry; resources, energy and tourism. They are RED because Treasury thinks they are dangerous. The BCDE marble has flashing red lights due to its promised expenditure across all basins.

The two green marbles are climate change-water and environment-heritage-arts. They have a feminine bent, shamelessly rolling around most basins with a mix of carrots and sticks. Jaffas are also in evidence.

Contributed by Silverhawk – article appears in the Good Oil column (LG Focus – October 2009)

Inland Rail is THE opportunity to build capacity, says Silverhawk

The Regional Economics Conference (Parkes NSW) in July 2009 saw Silverhawk speaking about the ‘Out of Sight – Out of Mind’ syndrome – or how the Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne triangle forgets those outside it. Other speakers in the session – demographer Bernard Salt and RDA Chair Sandy Morrison – ran complementary themes.

Silverhawk’s basic proposition was that the economic and population stagnation of inland NSW can be turned around. To explain it away to the Drought, the lure of the big cities and the Seachange effect is simplistic and defeatist.

The Inland Rail project is a litmus test. The early analysis is that it is “not financially viable as a standalone commercial entity.” Minister Albanese has thus asked the consultants to now examine how to (a) generate additional tonnages (b) lower capital costs (c) identify funding via different sources.

Re the low rail tonnages, no surprise. There is a serious lack of value-adding industry in the regions – check the trade statistics, or the imported foods on the supermarket shelves! Silverhawk suggested that councils along the route build an agenda with federal and state governments around:

• Inwards investment missions.
• Global supply chains.
• Infrastructure and industry portfolios talking to each other.
• Development zones and locational incentives (these are not heretical concepts). 

Re lowering capital costs, the cost of the Inland Rail project is around $2.8 to $3.6 billion – the figure might be nearer $2.5 billion if you weed out the ‘cost plus’ thinking. Also opportune to revisit the rail-road tax regimes. If heavy trucks paid full tote odds for the road damage, deaths, pollution, congestion they cause, rail MUST be more attractive.

Re the funding from different sources, the Building Australia Fund and super funds are loathe to finance the public interest. Silverhawk suggested they measure the public interest, and determine an equitable share for each level of government? EXAMPLE – assume the public benefit of the Inland Rail is $500m, and local communities derive $200m of this via rising property valuations, jobs etc. A cost-sharing formula might determine who should pay what along the route. Imagine – Wangaratta ($10m), Albury-Wodonga ($25m), Wagga ($25m), Junee ($5m) Parkes ($15m), Narromine ($5m), Dubbo ($25m), Moree ($10m), Toowoomba ($25m) etc. Then imagine a COAG session with 20-25 Mayors putting the deal on the table.

The Sigrid Effect

 Much of the McKinsey and OECD thinking is about regional communities needing to find their own niches, and developing distinctive capabilities around these niches. Indeed, overseas visitors often refer to a lack of distinctiveness of our towns.  

It was thus interesting to hear Bernard Salt speaking at Parkes about how population growth of towns can be triggered by events – Echuca benefited from the Sigrid Effect (i.e. Sigrid Thornton and the ‘All The Rivers Run’ TV series) because it marketed the area as a Tree Change destination.

 It gets you thinking – Torquay (Rip Curl, Quiksilver), Wahgunya (Uncle Toby’s), Shepparton (food), Armidale (education) got their kickalong via company investments or public infrastructure.

And now Industry Minister Kim Carr is funding the development of precincts e.g. minerals processing in Mackay, defence in Dandenong, clean energy in Newcastle, creative industries in the Sydney CBD. Local councils are well-placed to develop precincts with the support of federal and state governments.

Contact us to learn how.

Passionate amateurs – aquaculture

 Dear Cockatoo members

 Hopefully you will have visited our website www.growfish.com.au and read that it’s been placed 5th in the world ranking.  Last year we were ranked No.6. Needless to say we are mightily chuffed to achieve this ranking, as it puts Gippsland, Victoria and Australia on the map as a source of seafood news.

 The significance of our achievement can be put into perspective by seeing who are the top 10 websites – 1. FIS (Fish Info & Services), Japan – 2. Pan Acuicola, Mexico – 3. Diversified, USA – 4. NHST, Norway – 5. Gippsland Aquaculture Industry Network Inc. Australia – 6. FAO, Italy – 7. The Oban Times, UK  - 8. Seafood.com, USA – 9. FAO, Malaysia – 10. Mecator Media, UK

 What amazes us is that all the others have paid staff and money is no object, and in some cases Governments are involved. We in GAIN are just a bunch of passionate, dedicated amateurs.  Passionate about aquaculture and its place in the world food chain.  If you think being linked to our site would increase the awareness of your site and the information you want to broadcast, then by all means asked to be linked.  We want to promote anything associated with aquaculture so you will be more than welcome.

Regards, Barry Dance, Deputy Chairman, GAIN – go to www.growfish.com.au/

Recycled rubber (BEST PRACTICE)

 Interest in the recycled rubber sector will be sparked on 4 November when the feds and states announce a revolutionary tyre recycling system.

It has taken close on 4 years. The new arrangements will involve a $1 tax on imported passenger tyres, with the proceeds (possibly $12-15m per year) being spent on R&D for local firms. The aim of the new program is to increase the recycling rate to 95% or thereabouts. Currently old tyres are burned in cement kilns, buried at tip sites or thrown into dams.

 The big opportunity is for councils and development agencies to attract companies to establish facilities to manufacture rubber crumb and the downstream products such a rubber matting and footpaths, underlay for soccer, hockey grounds etc, road safety barriers. In rough terms, developed nations generate one tyre/head of population per year.

Recent improvements in processing technology (UK, Germany) mean that a viable processing plant can be established with feedstock of one million tyres annually. Long distance haulage of used tyres in not economically viable, so regions of one million plus should be able to sustain their own vertically-integrated recycled rubber industry. Regional towns will be attractive locations for downstream product manufacture – Warragul (Vic) is a first-mover.

 The proposal for a $1/tyre tax to stimulate R&D and processing activity is new to Australia, and other nations should track our progress. Contact us if you’d like to develop a recycled tyre activity.